'BEAR' MARKET:
Rice High's Jermaine Sanders, driving to the hoop in a recent game, will be attending Cincinnati next year, as the Bearcats are making gains with area stars. Photo: Denis Gostev

Connecticut did it. Pittsburgh did it. West Virginia did it.

Syracuse has been doing it since the inception of the Big East.

Now Cincinnati is doing it.

The Bearcats, under coach Mike Cronin, are the latest Big East program to target the metropolitan area as a recruiting priority.

“It started with Lance,” Cronin said, referring to former Lincoln star Lance Stephenson, who chose Cincy over St. John’s. “He was such a highly regarded player, and for him to come here and then to go the NBA, Lance did all that but we get the credit.”

“Now the reception we get in the New York area is so much different,” added Cronin, whose team got blasted 89-51 by Notre Dame last night in a quarterfinal game.

“If we don’t get Lance, we probably don’t get Jermaine.”

Cronin is referring to Rice star Jermaine Sanders, who has signed with Cincinnati. Shaquille Thomas of Newark also will head to the Queen City next year. And Sean Kilpatrick of White Plains, a redshirt freshman, is Cincinnati’s first guard off the bench.

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Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun
was incorrect in his assumption that Cronin was the Big East coach who did not vote Kemba Walker
to the league’s first team. Walker chose Connecticut over Cincinnati, and Calhoun thought Cronin was holding a grudge.

“I love that kid,” said Cronin. “I talk to his mother all the time. I’d do anything for Kemba Walker. If they want to know who I voted for, they should ask me. I voted for Kemba.”

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Count Rutgers coach Mike Rice
and his family as devoted Post readers.

Rice was awoken early yesterday morning by his wife Kerry
, who said he just had to see yesterday’s Post.

Rice, who said he barely got any sleep Wednesday night, initially was not happy about the early wake-up call. But he took one look at the back-page headline — $#!T STORM! — and laughed for the first time since his team suffered a 65-63 loss to St. John’s in which the refs botched the final 1.7 seconds.

Rice requested a copy of the back page to hang in his office.

“You guys hit a home run,” he said.

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Walker has made so many big shots, so many tough shots in his career, he must have some secret, right? Right.

It’s his mother Andrea’s
oxtail stew.

“It’s the best in the world,” he told The Post.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim
believes Walker has super powers.

Even though the Huskies did not get a first-round bye and will be playing their third game in three nights tonight, Boeheim is sure Walker will not be fatigued.

“Kemba Walker can play eight nights in a row, I guarantee you,” said Boeheim. “Eight nights in a row, 40 minutes.”